


After a Century Apart

by internetshutin



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, this ship needs more content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22246027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/internetshutin/pseuds/internetshutin
Summary: "I wasted so much time trying to fix the problems we created by making the Relics, and I lost almost half my life doing it. And the worst part is, I lost twelve years that I could have spent with you.”Merle and Lucretia find comfort in each other, and slowly, they find love.
Relationships: The Director | Lucretia/Merle Highchurch
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	After a Century Apart

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I just wanted some fluff with this pairing. I don't see enough content of this pair, and I want more. No smut, but some sexual content is mentioned

So much made sense all at once. With the day of Story and Song a memory weeks past, Merle had the time to untangle everything: the feeling of wrongness in his marriage, the longing for someone he couldn’t remember, the desire to become close with the Director as soon as he met her. He knocked on the door to her apartment and waited for her to answer. 

But she didn’t. When the door opened, a mustachioed gnome man was standing there, his eyes sharp and brighter than they’d been in the last twelve years. “Merle,” Davenport said, sounding surprised.

“Hey, Cap’nport. I didn’t think you’d still be here.” And answering doors for Lucretia, no less. “Is she here?”

Davenport nodded. “She’s helping me pack up some things before I set off. Come on in.”

Merle followed his former captain into the room to see Lucretia closing the last of several suitcases. “I think that’s it,” she said. “If you need anything else, just let me know- oh, hello, Merle.”

“This is fine, Lucretia,” Davenport said. There was an odd tone to his voice, a cross between pity and annoyance. “I should be heading out now. I’m meeting a man who wants to sell me a ship, and I don’t want to be late.”

Lucretia stood. “If you need help with the bags, I can-”

“No, I’ve got it.” Davenport left the room with two suitcases to each hand and one under his arm, somehow not struggling even a little with the load. 

Merle looked up at Lucretia. She looked crestfallen. “So everyone’s leaving, huh?”

She nodded. “It seems so. I have many Bureau employees, and I’d like to do something with them if they’d still follow me. But everyone else is either gone or going.” She sat on her bed and patted the mattress next to her. 

Merle obliged and sat next to her. “It’s hard, huh? You’re an idealist, and since everything’s changing…”

She nodded. “You understand, then.” She rested her head on Merle’s, her hand on his shoulder. They sat there like that, watching the world turn through the window of the base for what could have been a few minutes or several hours. “Does it ever strike you that we aren’t immortal anymore?” she asked.

Merle shrugged. “Sometimes. It’s weird. I died so many times on the Starblaster, I kinda stopped caring about death, and here… well, after Refuge, it doesn’t seem like death is all that permanent, either.”

Lucretia snorted. “I suppose not. I guess what I’m saying is…” She paused to collect her thoughts. “After getting twenty years of my life stolen from me, I felt different. Some might say it’s because my brain developed for the first time since I boarded the Starblaster. I was finally able to process the cycles in a way that I just couldn’t before, or maybe I finally felt closer to my real age, or any number of explanations. But it finally hit me that I’m going to die on this planet, and it’s not an abstract ‘someday’ anymore. I’ve got maybe thirty or forty years left in me, and that’s if I take my vitamins.”

It took a moment for Merle to process all of that. “I mean, I get it. Forty years. I’ve probably got fifty or sixty. Magnus… well, he’ll probably end up trying to tame a rabid wolf in a year or two.” Lucretia almost laughed at that. “Pan-damn, if you think about it, in a hundred years, the twins and Barry are gonna be all that’s left of us.”

“That’s what I’m saying. I wasted so much time trying to fix the problems we created by making the Relics, and I lost almost half my life doing it. And the worst part is,” she said, reaching for Merle’s hand, “I lost twelve years that I could have spent with you.”

Merle squeezed her hand. “We’ve got a lot of time to make up for.” He scooted closer to her, feeling her arm wrapped around him. “I missed you, Lu.”

“I missed you, too.” She kissed his forehead, and the second she did, the door opened.

They sprang apart from each other as Killian rushed in. “Davenport fell down the stairs.”

“Oh, my goodness. Is he alright?” Lucretia grabbed her staff- now a glorified walking stick- and rushed out of the room with Killian trailing behind her.

“He’s fine; he just needs help getting everything back in order.”

Merle sat on the bed for a few moments longer, trying and failing to hide the stupid little smile on his face.

* * *

Their first date was a picnic on the quad. A blanket spread out beneath the couple and a basket full of sandwiches, snacks, and plenty of wine between them. It was difficult to reconcile the Director with the mousy human girl who had boarded the Starblaster with them. Still, Merle couldn’t deny that he liked Lucretia as she was now, no longer too shy to even speak, no longer pretending to be their employer. She was beautiful like this, finally at ease, for what must have been the first time in her life. 

Merle plucked a flower from his Soulwood arm and held it out to her.

She chuckled and rolled her eyes, but still tucked it behind her ear. The bloom matched her dress perfectly. “Honestly, you don’t have to lay it on so thick.”

“Yeah, but my charm is one of the reasons you fell for me.” Merle grinned. “Come on, Lu. You know you love it.”

She laughed. “Shut up.” She tilted her head to kiss him, and the moment their lips touched, the picnic didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was their interlaced fingers and the sparks that filled the air between them. 

When they finally pulled away, Merle could swear she was glowing. He tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her again, but she pulled back before he could try more. “What’s wrong?”

She was a deep shade of red, chewing on her lip. “People are starting to stare.” And so they were. A few looked embarrassed; a few were silently cheering. Lucretia turned her face away. “Let’s finish eating and go back inside.”

Merle nodded and poured them both another glass of wine. It tasted sweeter now.

* * *

They didn’t have a lot of time to be together after that. With Lucretia focused on the reconstruction efforts with the newly-branded Bureau of Benevolence and Merle gallivanting with the Extreme Teen Adventures, they had only brief calls on their Stones of Farspeech. 

It wasn’t until a month after he’d started rebuilding Bottlenose Cove that they saw each other again. Merle caught Lucretia’s eye as he pronounced Carey and Killian bonded for life and smiled at her. She smiled back.

They drank and danced and talked for hours at the reception, not even paying attention when Killian tossed her bouquet. That is until it landed on the table between them and stopped their conversation dead in its tracks.

Merle turned bright red when Lucretia looked up from the bouquet to him, a glint in her eyes.

* * *

They never moved in together. No, their lives were far too busy for that. But Merle had a drawer of things at the moon base, and Lucretia a drawer in Merle’s house in Bottlenose Cove. 

Mavis adored Aunt Lucretia to the point of imitation, and there were times Merle swore he had a little Director on his hands. Mookie liked her too, but mostly he loved visiting the moon. 

They tried a few times to plan a wedding, but there was always a new emergency at the Bureau, an adventure to be had that couldn’t wait. Eventually, they found themselves sitting at the kitchen table with spreads of flower arrangements and color swatches, and Lucretia blurted out, “Let’s just elope. I’m sick of this.”

“Oh, thank Pan,” Merle sighed. 

They called up the old crew and the Bureau and had a barbecue on the quad, exchanging vows between the hot dogs and the cake. They took a week to honeymoon and immediately returned to work.

* * *

It was their thirtieth wedding anniversary. Merle’s head rested on Lucretia’s chest, legs tangled together, and sheets in a mess. A flower bloomed on Merle’s arm. He plucked it and tucked it behind Lucretia’s ear. She smiled.

“I love you,” he whispered. 

“Sap,” she accused. “I love you too.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Merle hummed. “So, I was thinking of something we should try…”

“I’m not wearing a dress made out of leaves. I don’t love you that much.” 

“But-”

“Not happening.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “But, we do have all night to try some other things.”

Merle thought that sounded like a great idea.


End file.
